Unboxing My First New-In-Box Pinball Machine!
Not a lot to say here...but I felt like I had to document my first-ever pinball unboxing!
Orange County Pinballs (they're awesome...if you're looking for a new pin, you should really check them out!) has the freight company deliver right to your door, and the delivery guy was more than happy to wheel the machine down my driveway and into my garage.
There are instructions on how to unbox the game in the game manual and on the quick-start sheets attached to the game...but, of course, they're inside the box along with the pinball machine! I had already downloaded the game manual for James Bond (Pro) before the game was delivered, so I knew what to do.
Basically, you just open the top of the crate and, then, cut the front (the "TRUCK ONLY FROM THIS SIDE" side) off with a box cutter. Then, you take out all the packing material and, leaving the back box strapped to the body of the game, you attach the front legs. Next, you lower it onto the front legs, lift the back onto something high enough to attach the rear legs (I used my pinball cart) and, well, attach the rear legs.
From there, it's just a matter of cutting the strap, moving the game to where it's going, raising and securing the back box, removing the packing materials from the playfield, putting in the plumb bob (for the tilt mechanism) and the balls, putting it in place, and leveling it. The whole process took me about an hour.
One other thing with new pinball machines...at least the Sterns...is connecting them to the Internet and updating the code. I wasn't anticipating how long that would take. Suffice it to say, it was several hours before I actually got to play the game. But, fortunately, code updates don't come along that often.
Also, there was one adjustment I needed to make (one physical one--I also set the game options in the setup procedure). The wire form that drops the ball in the left in-lane was slightly off-center, so balls were getting stuck. I had to get in there and move it so that it functioned correctly. Even with a brand-new game, you STILL have to know something about pinball repair and maintenance when you own these things!
James Bond (Pro) is a great game--and it was really fun to know that I was, for the first time, putting the very first game on a machine!